Al Heeley

trying to sell a squier as a full Fender has only one purpose - getting a better price for a cheaper instrument.

[quote]I personally feel that a good quality squier should wear the fender badge with pride. Amen. [/quote] Aaah, [u]that[/u] was the point. No I can't agree with you, fwiw.

Are there any other boxes out there that do what the Zvex Seek wah does?

With my chemists geek hat on this afternoon, Major inductrial use of cobalt is in alloying with Iron (steel) 2 main areas of application - alnico magnets and high speed cutting steel, (eg: tool bits, saws typically containing up to 5% cobalt). Before inferring from this that Cobalt would be responsible for making strings harder wearing, the cutting steel alloy is also combined with tungsten, vanadium, chromium, molybenum and carbon in additions from 1 to 6% depending on grade. It's more likely that Tungsten and Carbon are the primary contributers to cutting steel hardness, though Cobalt will also contribute otherwise they would not bother to put it in. Cobalt is also a good magnet (wikipedia tells me so, typically used at between 5 and 24% in AlNiCo magnets) and you could possibly assume that this reinforcement of a strings magnetic properties has a beneficial effect on the treble or mids of a bass string tonal qualities. I'd be interested to know how much of the tonal characteristics of a bass string comes from the method of manufacture, core and wrapping. and how much is down to the chemical composition of the alloys used. I predict that next year, other string manufacturers will follow suit with new product launches highlinging traces of other exotic metals that are normally present in steel alloys anyway, and attributing near-magical tonal properties to their presence. D'Addario Vanadiums or Rotosouond Molybdenum may be on the shelves soon, and the latter could be cause of much mis-pronunciation mirth at a music shop near you.

Just thinking - [red and green together on neck pup] + [black and white together on bridge] makes sense as the neck pup is installed at 180 degrees to the bridge one, so adjustable poles normally lie at the inner positions. XO --- OX XO --- OX XO --- OX XO --- OX XO --- OX XO --- OX If your bridge pup has only black and white wires then its not 4-conductor, ie: not able to coil-tap, the red and green are already soldered together and tucked away out of reach from prying pliers. These just connect the 2 humbucker coils together into a complete circuit so don't want to be connected to anything else. Normally if you buy a pair of matched humbuckers they will both be of same sort, ie: either both 4-conductor type or both 2-conductor type, so it might suggest the pups were replaced in 2 stages with different models. The DiMarzio site has super-d's down as 4-conductor: [url="http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/4Conductor.pdf"]http://www.dimarzio.com/sites/default/files/diagrams/4Conductor.pdf[/url] The above pdf will give you a lot of info about different ways to wire up the 4-conductor pickup to take advantage of coil splitting or series/parallel if you prefer.

Oh, er, what was the original question?

nice clips, listened to the talkbass ones too, theres certainly more mid range presence from the cobalt set when you listen back to back, but i find after 30 secs my ears get accustomed to the tones. If i was listening blind in isolation from a comparison then i'd struggle to hear significant difference after 30 secs. Strikes me that strings have gone the way of golf club brands - so much pressure each year to wack another silly metal into the alloy then preach pseudo-science about its benefits which are, on the whole not significant, to justify the price tag. Is this really what marketing has become? Are they driving forward new technical innovations? I think not. I'll stick with my regular ernie ball slinkies.

allparts [url="http://www.allparts.uk.com/online-shop/guitar-bass-parts/electronics/miscellaneous-pots/stacked-concentric-pots-cts-500k500k-p-3249.html"]http://www.allparts....00k-p-3249.html[/url] and ebay can't see split shaft though, can u live with a solid shaft?

according to this handy guide, Dimarzios use red as the hot output (+) and green as the ground, which goes with any bare or unbraised wire. So black and white should be the ones taped together for normal humbucker use. If one has red and green taped together then either it's not a dimarzio or someones botched it earlier. If it IS a dimarzio then the black now becomes hot and the white becomes ground, in which case it would be out of phase with the other pickup. I'd wire the pickup with the longer wire to the neck and the shorter to the bridge position. If you have a multimeter you could check the resistance of the coils and put the higher resistance pup in the bridge position.

Small clone chorus build in the smaller enclosure, tight fit to get all this in. Same mods as before - 2-depth voice switch and the heartbeat LED rate mod. [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/alheeley/7170011996/][/url]

i'd go for comp first, but if its too flat then its going to take away some dynamics from the envelope. This may be a good or bad thing depending on your settings. I prefer distortion after env but while there are 'good practice' guides, its important to swap around and see what suits your sound best. As the above poster said - do you want to filter your dirt or distort your filter? Each will sound a little different.

Here's another Mammoth fuzz, more pedalboard-friendly, DC only unit [url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/alheeley/7165473964/][/url]

stockroom spring clearout series?

hmm, no tapered pole pieces on mine, its a MIJ 2010, maybe they changed them, maybe mine's not legit?!

So he buys an £820 quid bass where one of the defining features is the ultra slim neck on the GL, then fits a £390 repacement neck on it and sells it for £325? My geddy jazz has flush pickup pole pieces. Sounds too good to be true, which normally means it is....

I'm just a bit concerned whereabouts he's wearing the single wellie.

Thx! Continuing my Yes nostalogia journey, I've moved on to 'into the lens' now from the Horn/Downes era. Didn't rate the album Drama very highly but always loved this song, easily the strongest from this album.

was it not worth fitting a decent preamp to your PJ to revive it?

i could hear some chorus and envelope going on, it is a great bass sound

It's been a nostalgic evening of youtube browsing for me, came across Silent Wings of Freedom from Yes - Tormato, which I've not listened to for 15 years or more, still for me one of the strongest songs on that album. Any idea what fx he's using on the bass for this track?

I've used one of these red n black strippers for years and swear by them, not at them. Always done a great job for any pedal wiring. I split ribbon strips into 3-wide for wiring up pots, then strip 1/2cm off the ends while they are still joined as 3, then split them into individual strands at the ends with a craft knife once stripped at the ends.